Referral Business Formula – Step 1 of 3
Hello and welcome to our 3-part series on the Referral Business Formula, or RBF.
In this series, we will unpack RBF and show you how to grow your business on purpose with strategies and tactics that will put your business heads above your competitors. Strap yourself in. Because starting with Clarify Your Message, we’re about to show you the absolute best way to grow your business faster, smarter, better than any of your competitors.
RBF is a framework for helping you get more new customers who stay longer, buy more often, and consistently promote you to the people who know and trust them most.
This simple, yet powerful 3-step process will help you to
- Clarify your Message
- Create Marketing that Attracts your Best Customers, and
- Grow your Business through qualified Referrals
The Referral Business Formula makes it simple and reciprocal for your best customers to promote you to members of their tribe. These are the new best customers you want and need most.
Whether you’ve got a small, mid-market, or enterprise-level business and you’re looking to take it to the next level, you’ve come to the right place. Designed for maximum momentum, RBF is like an escalator for growing your business. Once you step on, things move faster, easier, and more freely.
Let’s face it, there’s nothing more rewarding than getting a new best customer from one of your best customers. In fact, it’s not only affirming you’re doing the right things, it’s inspiring. Just think about how much more enjoyable and profitable your business would be if all of your new customers come to you through your best customers. Plus, your best customers would provide a constant reminder that you’re making them happy.
The thing is, my colleagues and I have been helping people grow their businesses through marketing for over 20 years. And, what we have learned is that they all want the same things. More new customers coming through their door, so they can sell them more. And, they want to sell more to the customers they already have. That’s because they know that in business, you’re either growing or dying. The number of customers you have is either growing or dwindling. And your sales are either growing or they’re just stagnating. We’ve been in both positions and we know what side we’d rather be on, and we bet you do too.
We think you’ll agree, there’s nothing like a fresh batch of best customers to inject new sales and momentum into your business. And the best way to go about getting ‘best customers’ is to build on the success you’ve already achieved with your existing customers. After all, you’ve already earned their trust, their confidence, and their business. This is your opportunity to leverage that trust in a way that benefits you, your best customers, and the people who trust them the most… their tribe.
Since the first local markets were established, the best-built businesses have forged their growth through their reputations and the introductions they received from the people who trust them most––members of their tribes. As simple as that may sound, this is how business is won.
As a consumer-focused business, you’re in the perfect position to leverage these strategies. In this 3-part series, we’ll be unpacking the core strategies for building your brand, your business, and your very own brand tribes.
The first strategy is to Clarify Your Message. The fact is people convert on offers they can understand the fastest. This one strategy alone will allow you to create significant growth in your sales and your business. We’re also going to show you how to create marketing that attracts your best customers. Because when you can identify and Attract Your Best Customers, everything you do gets faster, smarter, and better. The third and final strategy that I will show you is how to Grow Through Customer Tribes. This is the one that changed everything for my business. You get to apply new technology with old-school selling, to create an always-on, always working, Referral Business Formula (RBF) engine for your business. How cool is that?
And the best part is when you stack each of these strategies, one on top of the other, you get a massive surge in momentum and in your sales. I know it may sound overly ambitious but our goal is to show you how to generate more new customers in three months than it would normally take some businesses a full year. Let’s begin, shall we?
RBF Step 1
Clarify Your Message
There’s a saying in Marketing that if you confuse, you lose the customer. Equally true is the fact that people buy products they can understand fastest. The following messaging strategies will ensure that people not only understand your message, but they’ll also relate to you, connect with you, and become more loyal to you.
Leading with Why – Most business leaders can explain what they do and how they do it. This approach to messaging works now and then, and at most will result in some repeat business. But as soon as the customer finds a better price, they will jump ship, because your message doesn’t sound any different from your competitor.
Customer loyalty is not built on features and benefits. Features and benefits lack emotion and do nothing to inspire your customer. Loyalty and lasting relationships are built on a much deeper connection.
To win the hearts and minds of your customers and prospects, you’ll need to start with WHY!
People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do what you do. – Simon Sinek, Author
Your message should be based on more than just facts and figures. Those things are important but they should not come first. Leading with WHY has deeper, emotional, and ultimately more influential value. When people understand what you stand for, they will get why you do what you do. Then they will easily see the uniqueness of how you do what you do. Remember: People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.
There’s a saying in Marketing that if you confuse, you lose the customer. Equally true is the fact that people buy products they can understand fastest. The following messaging strategies will ensure that people not only understand your message, but they’ll also relate to you, connect with you, and become more loyal to you.
Your Brand Story – Building on the fundamental truth that ‘people buy why you do what you do’, your brand story will become your vehicle for explaining this fundamental truth, in a way that is both relatable and memorable.
When crafting your brand story, you’ll want to employ the same proven methodology that is used to write some of the greatest novels in history and the biggest movies of our time. The hero’s journey is the gold standard of storytelling and it’s now been adapted to tell brand stories in a way that is both compelling and unforgettable.
Use the hero’s journey methodology to share your marketing message with your best customers. In your brand story, you’ll want to position your customers and prospects as the hero, and you as the experienced guide who will help them solve their problems. You’ll be the one to give them a plan, and you’ll lead them on the path to success. You’ll be Morpheus and they’ll be Neo. In case you couldn’t tell, I’m a huge fan of the movie, The Matrix.
Scientifically Proven Messaging – Creating offers that your customers and prospects will understand the fastest. And getting them to act on those offers requires a scientific approach to your message. The following message strategy builds on your brand story and gives it a tactical approach that can be used for all of your offers.
Getting people to act on your offers requires a scientific approach to your message.
Individual product or service offers should employ the following message strategy.
- Headlines that INTERRUPT customers and prospects with messaging that is both familiar and problematic.
- Sub-headlines that ENGAGE them with assurances that you understand them and that you will show them how you are able to solve their familiar problem.
- Body copy that will EDUCATE them on the specific steps that you will take to solve their familiar problem.
- CTA OFFER messaging will get them to make a choice between success by acting on your offer, and failure, if they do not act on your offer.
This scientifically proven messaging strategy is proven to double, even triple, your sales over traditional advertising copywriting.
Summary:
Now that we’ve shown you the first step in growing your business on purpose, Clarify Your Message, you’ve now opened the door to your next challenge. How do you attract the customers who need to hear your message the most? In Step 2 of 3, we’ll show you how to Attract Your Best Customers.
